Abstract

The cross-linguistic tendency of coda consonants to weaken, vocalize, or be deleted is shown to
have a phonetic basis, resulting from gesture reduction, or variation in gesture timing. This study
investigates the effects of the timing of the anterior tongue gesture for coda /r/ on acoustics and
perceived strength of rhoticity, making use of two sociolects of Central Scotland (working- and
middle-class) where coda /r/ is weakening and strengthening, respectively. Previous articulatory
analysis revealed a strong tendency for these sociolects to use different coda /r/ tongue configurations—working-
and middle-class speakers tend to use tip/front raised and bunched variants,
respectively; however, this finding does not explain working-class /r/ weakening. A correlational
analysis in the current study showed a robust relationship between anterior lingual gesture timing,
F3, and percept of rhoticity. A linear mixed effects regression analysis showed that both speaker
social class and linguistic factors (word structure and the checked/unchecked status of the prerhotic
vowel) had significant effects on tongue gesture timing and formant values. This study provides further
evidence that gesture delay can be a phonetic mechanism for coda rhotic weakening and apparent
loss, but social class emerges as the dominant factor driving lingual gesture timing variation.